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` UNITED STATES PATENT OEEioE.

EDGAR A. MONFORT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CARTRIDGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 276,451, dated April 24,

Application filed July 5, 1882. (No model.)

To all lwhom it may concern r Be it known that I, EDGAR A. Monronr, a citizen ot the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Cartridges for Fire-Arms, ot which the following is a specification.`

This invention relates to improvements in cartridges for fire-arms, and has for its object to provide an improved cartridge ot' such construction that it can be used in a tire-arm having means for generating a current ot' electricity which serves to ignite the charge in` the cartridge.

-The invention consists in a cartridge having within its base two or more platinum wires crossing each other, and having terminals formed of the same or of different wire projecting through the base, and having an insulated support therein.

Figure l represents a sectional view of the improved cartridge placed in the barrel of a *firearm which is provided with means to ignite the charge by a current or spark of eleotricity; Fig. 2, an end view of` the breech of the gun, showing the conducting-plates with which the platinum points of' the cartridge come in contact. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the cartridge, partot' the case being broken away to show the arrangement of the platinum wire orwires within the shell.

A in the drawings indicates the breech-piece ofthe arm, which may be made of any convenient form. Within this breech is placed a storage or other battery, B, of any suitable type. It may, for instance, be a generator of electric energy; butin the present state of the art it is preferable to use a storage-battery or accumulator of any of the well-known varieties. To the poles of said battery are connected conductingwires C G', which are united at their lower ends to conducting plates or disks a a, set in the breech-plate, said plate being composed ot' india-rubber, Celluloid, or other non-conducting material.- One of the wires, as C, is out at a suitable point and provided with connection-points c c', which are normally separated so as to break the circuit. To one of said connection-points, c', a key or push-button, D, or any other suitable device,

,the use of the cartridge in thcI may be connected, by operating which the circuit may be completed.

E indicates the barrel ot' the arm, which is of the usual construction ot' breecl'i-loaders.

F, Fig. 3, indicates my improved cartridge, having in its base a non-conducting disk, Gr. This disk forms a support for the terminals of two or more tine platinum or other wires, I I, arranged at or about at right angles with each other within the shell, and in contact `with each other at their pointot' intersection. The points d d cl d ot' these wires project rearward from the base ot' said cartridge, being supported, as already' mentioned, by the non-eon ducting disk G. The powder K occupies the usual proportion of the shell, lying upon the base and upon all sides of the intersecting wires I I. When the cartridge F is placed in the barrel and the barrel turned down into its seat, the points of atleast-two ot these wires will be in contact with the conductingsurfaces a o` in the breech-plate. It now the key D is operated andthe circuit closed,`elcctricity will flow from the battery through the platinum or other wire or wires I, thereby heating the latter to a red heat and ignit-ing the charge. This characteristic of platinum of offering such rcsistance to the passage ot' a current as to be heated to a red or even white heat almost in stantaneousl-y is too familiar to Irequire men` tion. By using two or more wires which cross ata common point within the shell ignition is effected at several different and equidistant points, the powder being tired next the baise and burning toward the ball.

I do not here claim the iirearm having the means shown and described for producing currents of electricity to ignite the charge in my improved cartridge; nor do I limit myself to particular tirearin shown;l but What Iclai'm is- 1. A cartridge provided within its base with two or more wires crossing each other and their terminals projecting through the base of the shell, and having an insulated support therein, substantially as described.

2. A cartridge having within its base two or more than two platinum wires crossing each other at a common point, and having termiand provided with an insulating-support set in said base, from which the points of said wires project, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my 1o *hand in the presence of two subscribing-witnesses.

EDGAR A. MOBT FORT.

Witnesses Jos. L. GALT, JOHN W. W. MITCHELL. 

